Temple-Eastex, Inc. v. C & S Wholesale & Retail Lumber Co.

601 S.W.2d 531, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3581
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 12, 1980
DocketNo. 1365
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 601 S.W.2d 531 (Temple-Eastex, Inc. v. C & S Wholesale & Retail Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Temple-Eastex, Inc. v. C & S Wholesale & Retail Lumber Co., 601 S.W.2d 531, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3581 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

McKAY, Justice.

This is a venue case. The appeal is from the order overruling a plea of privilege.

The appellee is C & S Wholesale & Retail Lumber Co., a resident of Bexar County. The appellant is Temple-Eastex, Inc., a resident of Angelina County.

Beginning in 1968 appellee purchased lumber and other building materials from appellant on account but during the period of February 20,1975, to June 6,1978, appellant began to charge interest on past-due invoice amounts. On February 16, 1979, appellee brought suit under Art. 5069-1.03, [532]*532Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.1 alleging that during the aforementioned period appellant charged and collected usurious interest on the account. Appellant filed a plea of privilege asserting its right to be sued in Angelina County. Appellee filed a controverting plea. The district court overruled the plea and appellant perfected this appeal bringing two points or error.

Appellant contends in its points that the district court erred in overruling the plea of privilege because the appellee failed to prove a prima facie cause of action that it paid any interest in excess of the amount authorized by law. In response, appellee maintains that it need only allege a cause of action for usury and prove that it was a resident of the forum of suit at the time of filing. Appellee additionally argues that, even if it is necessary to establish a prima facie cause of action under Article 5069-1.-06(3), the uncontroverted testimony in the record shows that it proved a prima facie cause of usury.

Although venue is generally proper in the county of the defendant’s domicile under Article 1995, subsection 30 thereof sets out a special venue exception:

Whenever in any law authorizing or regulating any particular character of action, the venue is expressly prescribed, the suit shall be commenced in the county to which jurisdiction may be so expressly given.

For actions brought under the Texas Consumer Credit Code, venue is governed by Art. 5069-1.06(3) which provides:

All such actions brought under this Article shall be brought in any court of this State having jurisdiction thereof within four years from the date when the usurious charge was received or collected (1) in the county of the defendant’s residence, or (2) in the county where the interest in excess of the amount authorized by this Subtitle has been received or collected, or (3) where such transaction had been entered into, or (4) where the parties who paid the interest in excess of the amount authorized by this Subtitle resided when such transaction occurred, or (5) where he resides, (numbers added)

Appellee relies on subdivisions 4 and 5 to sustain venue in Bexar County since it resided in that county during the period in which it purchased goods from appellant and currently resides in that county. Ap-pellee argues that under subdivision 5 the only venue fact requiring proof at the venue hearing is evidence that at the time of the filing of the action the plaintiff resided in the county where the suit was brought.

After a careful examination of the language of Article 5069-1.06(3) we conclude that subdivisions 4 and 5 must be read together; the language “or where he resides” refers back to the language “where the parties who paid the interest in excess of the amount authorized by this Subtitle resided when such transaction occurred.” Therefore the venue section allows a party who paid usurious interest to bring suit in the county where he resided when such transaction occurred or where he resided when the suit was filed. Under either subdivision it is our view that necessary venue proof be made that usurious interest was paid by the plaintiff. Universal Credit Co. v. Dunklin, 105 S.W.2d 867, 868 (Tex.1937); Hugh Robison Farm Machinery, Inc. v. Wied, 593 S.W.2d 731, 733 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston (1st Dist) 1979, no writ); International Harvester Co. v. Rotello, 580 S.W.2d 418, 419 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston (1st Dist) 1979, no writ); National Mortgage Corp. of America v. Maxwell, 541 S.W.2d 626 (Tex.Civ.App.-Beaumont 1976, no writ); Ballard v. Shock, 91 S.W.2d 385, 388 (Tex.Civ.App.-Eastland 1933, no writ).

To construe subdivision 5 as allowing a party to maintain venue where he resides without proof of payment of usurious interest creates an inconsistent result. Subdivision 4 authorizes a party who paid usurious interest to bring an action in the county where he resided when the transaction occurred, whereas, subdivision 5, as construed, authorizes a party who paid usurious interest to bring an action in the county where [533]*533he presently resides; thus, each subdivision refers to a different time frame. In the event a plaintiff should move from the county of his residence when the transaction which resulted in the payment of usurious interest occurred to the county wherein he presently resides, the burden of establishing the necessary venue facts should not be affected. The simple fact of the plaintiff changing residence should not allow him to maintain venue under a lesser burden of proof, i. e, proof of present residence as opposed to proof of residence and payment of usurious interest. Therefore, if a plaintiff changes residence after the transaction occurred, he must still prove current residence and payment of usurious interest to maintain venue under Art. 5069-1.06(3).

In support of its position, appellee relies upon Allied Finance Company v. Miro, 568 S.W.2d 910 (Tex.Civ.App.-Waco 1978, no writ) and Donald v. Agricultural Livestock Finance Corp., 495 S.W.2d 592 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1973, no writ). These cases have held that it is not necessary to prove that a party paid usurious interest under the fifth subdivision of Article 5069-1.06(3). We decline to follow this construction of the statute.

In Universal Credit Co. v. Dunklin, supra, the Supreme Court, in construing Article 5073, the predecessor section to Article 5069-1.06(3), specifically held that the burden was on the plaintiff both to allege and to prove the requisite venue facts under the section. Importantly, the court relied upon Ballard v. Shock, supra. In that case the Eastland Court of Civil Appeals initially held that to maintain venue it was only necessary to allege the existence of a contract under the applicable provision of Article 5073. However, on motion for rehearing the court modified the former opinion and held that a plaintiff must not only prove the residency requirements but, additionally, must prove the usurious interest collected pursuant to a usurious contract. 91 S.W.2d 388. In Donald v. Agricultural Livestock Finance Corp., supra, the court relied upon the initial opinion to support its interpretation of Article 5069-1.06(3).2 Accordingly, since Miro and Donald,

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Bluebook (online)
601 S.W.2d 531, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/temple-eastex-inc-v-c-s-wholesale-retail-lumber-co-texapp-1980.